Why are we told to start drinking lots of water before the advent of the summer? Why are we cautioned not to get wet and move around in wet clothes in the monsoons? Why do we start eating heat inducing foods just at the first signs of winter? Are all these just silly worries your grandmother or mother would do?
Haven’t we all paid a price at some point of our life by ignoring these things? Haven’t we paid a price of losing out on studies, a crucial sports match or a holiday for which we were really looking forward to?
Prevention is better than cure
If at that point we had been proactive in listening to the advice and fore-arming ourselves we would have been able to attend those events and perhaps enjoy and who knows excel at them!! Reacting to an event after it has occurred is nothing but trying to salvage a situation gone bad and trying to get it back to normalcy rather than maintaining normalcy and progressing ahead fruitfully. You can very well imagine the time, money and the physical and mental effort put in to get things back to normalcy, and yet, that bad incident scars you and you lament and ruminate over it time and again in the future. “If only I had seen it coming…” is the phrase which keeps going on and on, in your mind in a loop for a long-time causing despondency and doubting your own capabilities to handle future situations effectively.
Security is also akin to these scenarios. Vulnerability can be pre-empted if we are closely involved in our life and work processes. Once this vulnerability is identified one can also gauge the risks it will cause to oneself and his environment. Sometimes the vulnerability might not even appear during the period it was predicted to occur, but does that mean your effort made to prevent it were in vain? Not at all, in fact your proactive stance before and during that period allowed you to secure certain processes which went on smoothly and therefore you were able to concentrate on newer things which helped you progress and prosper.
You don't need to be constantly afraid!
Proactive security does not mean making your home, office or life into a FORTRESS!! It means securing and fortifying parts of your life and processes which might become vulnerable at some point of time because they are already in auto-mode or have been taken for granted.
Adjusting oneself to a malfunctioning lock on the main door, just because it is easier to open for the owner even if he forgets the keys is one type of adjustment, he has made, to make his life simpler. The owner does not pre-empt that there may be strangers or visitors who might notice this vulnerability and in future might use it gain illegal and unlawful entry into your premises. If a crime occurs in the premises it would be just because someone found out the owner’s method of making his own life simpler and that other person made his life more ‘richer’ by using this vulnerability to get his hands onto the owner’s valuables.
Restricting unwanted access into your home, work and life space is something every individual can do. It does not require high tech gadgetry or fancy fighting skills. It requires only an alert mind which helps in preventing the crime to come to your doorstep. Your day to day processes which seem mundane and unimportant if are honed in a way by small common-sense security methods and practices which, if firmly ingrained in your mind will definitely serve, to prevent any loss to your material possessions which are important in your regular day-to-day functioning.
A shift in attitude needed the most
FORTIFY engages you by showing you the number of vulnerabilities that can occur and the level of risk you face when these vulnerabilities are exploited by criminal minds. It may sound tedious, boring and many a times mundane but if our recommended behaviours and habits are ingrained, you will find yourself mentally secure about what you have and will be able to concentrate more on what you can achieve!
-Lt. Col. Omar Pathare - Founder, Fortify Security Consulting